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Episode 747: Important Playoff Questions Answered
Date October 20, 2015 Summary Ben and Sam banter about Johnny Cueto and the differences between the most boring parts of baseball and other sports, then answer playoff-related listener emails. Topics * What distinguishes baseball radio broadcasts? * Using small sample sizes for managerial decisions * Batter-pitcher matchup dominance * High rates of solo home runs * Playoff player acquisition hypothetical Intro Wu-Tang Clan, "Reunited" Outro Joel Plaskett Emergency, "Radio Fly" Banter * Ben says he "accidentally watched a few minutes of football" waiting for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer to come on TV. * What are the most boring parts of baseball and other sports? * Ways to make the end of a baseball game more exciting * Having umpires explain calls to the broadcast and fans in the stadium * Johnny Cueto contract hypotheticals Email Questions * Austin: "I am Cardinals fan in Kansas City and greatly agree that the Royals' broadcast is not good. I am currently listening to Toronto's broadcast and one thing I like is how audible the stadium announcer and walkup music are, I wish more broadcasts incorporated this. Can you discuss what makes a certain broadcast good versus another?" * Brian: "In the final game of the Cards-Cubs NLDS Mike Matheny pinch hit for Randall Grichuk with Greg Garcia. He did this because Greg Garcia was 3-4 vs. Pedro Strop whereas Grichuk was 0-4. This small sample size thinking drives Cards fans nuts, we call it (and also his bullpen usage) 'Mathenaging'. Garcia is a career AAAA player and that is one of his two home runs in the major leagues ever. Grichuk has 20 homers and 433 MLB at-bats and he was drafted in front of Mike Trout. Can you think of a situation where this would ever make sense? Would Matheny pinch hit Garcia for Trout or Harper if the numbers were the same? Would 0-20 with 20 strikeouts by Grichuk make it OK? Can someone explain sample size to MLB managers?" * Steven: "Let's imagine for a moment that the playoffs in baseball were very different from the playoffs in baseball and more like war. That is, once you conquered an army the troops that you just defeated are then drafted into your army. Now that we have only four teams left, it's a little easier to think of such things without it being too underwhelming. So what if, under the rules of baseball, you were allowed to replace up to two players in your usual starting lineup with up to two players that played for the team that you've just eliminated. You'd be under no obligation to replace anyone but you could and you would lose the player that was being replaced. You can't just give up a bench guy and bring in two stars from the team you've just beaten. You should probably exclude pitchers in this scenario because it seems obvious that you'd just take the best pitcher and build up the playoff rotation. So, who would be the different players, if any, in the starting lineups of each of the championship series teams based on the teams they've just beaten in the division series?" Play Index * Inspired by a listener email that mentions Steve Buechele, Sam wants to find out which player had the greatest number of solo home runs as a percentage of their total home runs. * Eric Young Sr. had 68 solo home runs out of a career 79 total home runs. This 86% solo home run rate is the highest in history. Notes * Sam, "The feeling I have when a catcher goes out the mound more than anything is the feeling that a parent has when their kid didn't go to the bathroom when you stopped for gas and then 10 minutes later he has to go to the bathroom and you're like, 'Dude, we just left.'" * Ben and Sam banter about umpires being mic'd up and comment how great it would be if they could hear the arguments umpires and managers have, or more discussions with players. This topic resurfaced in Episode 1230. * When discussing Brian's question Sam references his discovery in Episode 240 of Ray Durham's 0-26 career performance against Mariano Rivera. Ben made many failed attempts to contact Durham about this. * Steven's question was previous asked in Episode 318. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 747: Important Playoff Questions Answered * Analyzing the "baseball is boring" stigma by Sam Miller Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes